First glance inside the Blue Shirts Department

Posted on 23 Dec 2016 @ 3:39am by Lieutenant JG Charles Carmichael & Lieutenant Commander Arjin Djinx & Lieutenant JG Angela Delorean PhD & Master Chief Petty Officer Anya Bergman Ph.D. & Ensign Aidan Crehan & Ensign Elisha Cherno

2,184 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Click Three Times
Location: Science Lab 1
Timeline: Backpost - Mission 8

After having left the Captain’s ready room, Arjin went on his way to bring a visit to his department. The sooner he got up to date on how the department was running without an actual Chief Science Officer, the better.

He only took a small glance to the side of the bridge, where the main Science station was located.
There were two stations next to each other. But only one of them, science station one, gave access to the higher security level codes. That station would be his to man during the coming alpha shifts.

It was currently occupied by a Bolean female Ensign. He could see she was looking at him as he exited the ready room. But he chose not to acknowledge her attention and continued towards the turbo lift.

When inside, he ordered the lift to make progress to deck 4. He would take a visit to the Primary Science Lab 1. Hoping to find the Acting chief Science officer at work there. That would be a Lieutenant JG Carmichael if the information on his PADD was correct.

It was time he presented himself to his department crew and relieved Lieutenant Carmichael as the departments head.

It did not take Arjin long to find the doors which had Science Lab 1 on them.
He straightened his uniform and made ready to step inside. Hoping the be pleased with what he was about the witness. He was not going to announce who he was just yet. Preferring to observe first and see how the crew reacted to an unfamiliar presence in their midst.

As the doors opened with a hiss, Arjin stepped in and looked around him. He was pleasantly surprised to see everyone inside at work.

He spotted a variation of ranks and species busy with whatever task was at hand. He even spotted two cadets at work.
That brought back memories of his own cadet cruise. It had been a pleasant one for him. But he had known others who had excelled in Starfleet academy. Only to find out that the real thing was not for them. He was curious to find out which would be the case here with those young ones.

Angela stood in front of a console looking at the sensor info that Starfleet had on the Hadyn Nebula and the information on Mutara Nebula's in general. She knew that the high levels of static discharge and ionized gases combined effect of this made a starship's sensors highly unreliable and shields inoperable when inside and was working on a way to enable the ship to have alternative ways to work around that.

When she heard the door open, she glanced over and saw a short Trill enter with the pips of a Lieutenant Commander on his collar and gave him a nod. "Sir," she said politely, wondering who the Trill officer was.

"Hmm?" Charles asked. He'd been standing next to Angela, his arms crossed as he studied the sensor data that Angela had displayed. "I didn't say anything, Angela," he told the woman beside him. Of course, he hadn't noticed the new arrival. He was in the proverbial "zone."

Aidan had been working with Elisha on computer simulations regarding the rumored Warbird. They simply had to come up with something, even if it would only give them a few extra minutes. Perhaps those would be the minutes necessary to destroy the thing. If it was even in there. He turned when he heard the doors open and saw a Lieutenant Commander come in. Aidan smiled and nodded before returning to the next simulation.

Anya Bergman kept her head down on her console. Unlike most of her colleagues, her field of expertise wasn't in the stars, but in the biological sciences. She had been kept in the loop with the Thalaron radiation issue only peripherally, when she had been asked if there was a way to medically counteract the effects of Thalaron radiation - a ridiculous question, because of course there wasn't. Her work still revolved around the Yolvandan virus, that had caused the New Risan epidemic a short while ago that had threatened to decimate the Black Hawk crew.

It was clear that the virus had been genetically engineered. She was now attempting to determine its source, and trace it back to its maker. A difficult task, to be sure - they had found genes from twelve different species in the virus's genome, but it did seem to have been designed around a Trill virus, which pointed to involvement from someone in the Alpha Quadrant. Beyond that though, the origins of the Yolvandan virus were still a mystery.

Cadet Cherno was busily studying a PaDD and comparing it to a console when the doors swished open. She glanced up, but only for a second. If it was important, someone would call her. Until then, she was going to keep studying or she wouldn't pass her exams.

Arjin nodded back at the Lieutenant and walked over to her station which she currently shared with another Lieutenant.

"Good day Lieutenants. I am looking for Lieutenant Carmichael. Could you tell me where I could find him?"

"That's me," Charles said, absent-mindedly, glancing to his side to see the new arrival. He smiled and nodded at the Lieutenant Commander before turning back to the console.

Then Charles froze, his mind just now registering who was beside him. "Oh!" he said, shocked and dumbfounded. His whole head snapped back to his side, and his body turned a moment later. "Oh, Lieutenant Commander! I... uh... I'm sorry... I didn't know you were here." Charles extended a hand. "Lieutenant JG Charles Carmichael, sir."

Arjin smiled and shook the Lieutenant's hand. "Lieutenant Commander Arjin Djinx. I have been assigned as new Chief Science Officer to the Black Hawk. As I understand it you are the acting Chief?"

"I w... was, Commander," Charles replied. "I don't have it in me for leadership, but somehow, I keep finding myself in charge. I'm just glad you're here."

"I would like to see you tomorrow so you can get me up to date if that is all right with you."

"For now, tell me what you and Lieutenant ..... ", he turned towards the female officer standing next to Lieutenant Carmichael. "Are doing right now."

TAG Delorean. (I have not yet mastered all names at this point so don't feel offended if i just called you lieutenant.) feel free to still hop in.

"Right now?" Charles repeated. "We... we're looking at the raw data from the Hadyn Nebula. It's Mutara-class, and everyone knows that sensors and shields and phasers will be limited or unusable inside of it. To that effect, we're looking for anything that might be useful, or help us beat the Consortium to the target, assuming it exists."

"Mutara-Class nebula's are a pain, yes.", Arjin replied. "A bit like the old submarine wars. Without having a decent sonar. Maybe running silent would help us from being detected. And help us get more performant readings."

"We'd likely be running silent for a few days," Charles pointed out. "I'm not saying it can't be done, but this nebula is one of the largest I've ever seen. It'll be like finding a needle in a haystack without a magnet."

"But finding it we will Lieutenant. I'm sure of it. If we all give our best we will find it."

"We'll do our best, sir," Charles replied to his new supervisor. He was personally looking forward to studying the nebula up close and personal.

He nodded to both Lieutenants. "I look forward to see your findings and review them together."

He then walked over to the station where he had seen the two Cadet's standing.

"Greetings Cadets. How are things going on over here?"

"G-good," stammered Elisha nervously. "W-we have exams s-s-soon, so I'm s-studying botany. R-reviewing, really." She smiled nervously. "B-because I already know- know it."

Aidan looked up from his console. "Indeed we do. But I've been working on simulation regarding the rumored Warbird. If it exists, we need to have a few courses of action to take when it comes to the primary weapon." He turned to Elisha. "Then perhaps I'll return to my studies."

Elisha felt her cheeks burning, but said nothing in her defense. She had asked how she could help this morning and was told to just go review the different systems, so she was doing as she'd been told. With a disgruntled frown, she turned back to the console she'd been studying, feeling completely useless.

Arjin smiled to wards the young Candet. Trying to make her feel less nervous. "It is good you are not neglecting you studies Cadet. You can be easily distracted whilst serving on a starship. But paperwork that is due, though not as pleasant as other duties, is important still. One can not exist without the other."

"As to the weapons system, yes we will want to have options, but the Warbird will be as ill equipped as us inside a Mutara-class nebula."

Angela had taken a moment to study something on her screen and looked up. "What if we filtered out everything except for metals used by the Romulans and Federation on sensors?" she asked.

"Good thinking. But would that not give us a blind edge to other dangers? What if the Consortium uses non Starfleet or Romulan vessels?"

"To our knowledge, they haven't yet done so," Charles pointed out. "In fact, since this nasty business began with the Consortium, everyone has kept their distance. No one wants to be stabbed in the back, not even the
Ferengi."

"Point taken. But I want to be prepared for every eventuality.", Arjin replied. "In any case it is an idea worth exploring. Why don't you make that your project?", he said to the female cadet. "I am looking forward to discuss your findings when you are ready."

Aidan turned to Elisha and smiled. It was a gentle gesture that he hoped would help encourage her. Based on her last statement to their new department chief, he thought she could use a bit. "I think you can handle, can't you? And if you need assistance, I offer some of my time."

Elisha mouthed wordlessly for a moment, blinked, then stammered, "th-thank you, s-sir. I'll d-do my best." A project all her own? She was going to have to work extra hard, now. On top of studying for exams, she was going to have a lot of other research to do as well. But, she was determined to do well.

He then turned towards the last person working at the lab. A master Chief Petty Officer. "And how are thing going over here chief?", Arjin asked.

"Things are well," she said, her head snapping up as Djinx called out in her direction. She had been content to let the new Chief Science Officer speak with the others on matters of astrophysics. Her specialty being life sciences, she wouldn't have understood most of what they had been talking about, so she had kept her head down, and focused on her work. "I don't know if you are aware of the virus that infected the crew last month. It seemed to have been genetically engineered by the Consortium, and I have been working on understanding its genetics, in an attempt to determine who created it. So far, I have been able to sequence its genome, and determine that it was assembled by grafting genes from at least a dozen Gamma Quadrant species onto a virus that is endemic to one Alpha Quadrant species - the Trill."

Arjin was surprised when he heard the Trill mentioned. Life science was not his major, but he knew enough to be able to follow in depth discussions in the field.

"I just came aboard the Black Hawk.", he said to the Chief. "So no I do not know anything about such virus yet. But I can imagine the Consortium crew could easily include several Trill. Most likely scientists. So such root being used to create the new virus is not something so far fetched. Maybe in the future we will be confronted with other cocktails where the root might be a Human, Bolean, Andorea or what ever species virus. Do you think your research could help us detect such virus if we were confronted with it and take precautionary measures?"

"Not necessarily," replied Bergman. "We have already developed a vaccine for this virus, based on the immunological barrier between host and symbiont," she explained, referring to the natural defense mechanism that protected a symbiont from being contaminated by a host's infection, similar to the placental barrier in humans, preventing foetuses from being infected by the mother's illness. If a carrier virus from another species was chosen, they would have to start from scratch. "This research is more about identifying the culprit."

"Hm. I see. Well seems like you are doing an excellent job here. I hope you can find that culprit soon." Arjin said his goodbyes to the chief and excited the science lab. Eager to explore his quarters and do some unpacking.

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